A dozen bodies uncovered in Weymouth storage unit

Police uncovered 12 bodies in a Weymouth storage unit Thursday as part of an ongoing investigation into a former Boston funeral home director who is currently being held on larceny charges, according to the Suffolk County District Attorney's Office.

WEYMOUTH -- James McCarthy hoisted himself up on an iron fence to get a better view of workers from the state medical examiner’s office in protective gloves and suits carrying corpses out of a storage unit about 20 feet away from the one he rented until late last year.

Barely visible behind several unmarked police cruisers, a wooden casket lay on the ground as police unpacked the grisly scene after stumbling on a dozen human bodies Thursday as part of an investigation into a former funeral home director currently locked up on larceny charges.

“It’s an eerie feeling,” said McCarthy, a Hingham resident who rented his storage unit at Public Storage on Route 18 for about a year. “Who knows how long this has been going on for?”

Boston police assigned to Suffolk County District Attorney Daniel Conley’s office discovered the bodies while executing a search warrant at the 1470 Main St. facility as part of an investigation into Joseph V. O’Donnell, 55, whose last known address was in Mattapan, said Jake Wark, a spokesman for the office.

O’Donnell, who used to run a Dorchester funeral home, was arrested on larceny charges in April after police say he took $12,000 in pre-payments from an elderly couple, then closed up shop and was unable to pay them back.

He is currently being held on $10,000 cash bail on two counts of larceny over $250 and was scheduled to be back in a Boston court today.

O’Donnell rented the storage unit in Weymouth and another one in Somerville where police found cremated remains Wednesday. Police don’t suspect foul play in those people’s deaths.

Wark said investigators are working to identify the bodies found in the Weymouth storage unit and determine when they were placed there.

As of Thursday night, O’Donnell had not been charged in connection with the discovery of the bodies or the cremated remains, Wark said.

Police and prosecutors are also investigating the validity of other funeral arrangements for which O’Donnell was paid, including arrangements after his funeral director’s license lapsed in 2008, Wark said.

Outside the storage facility Thursday evening, curious onlookers gathered at the fence next to the facility.

Longtime Weymouth resident Frances Hale said the crime scene was worse than anything she had ever witnessed in the town.

O’Donnell’s unit was in a squat cinder block building with orange doors located behind the main building.

Taylor Lacorte, 26, who happened to see the crime scene on her way home from picking up her mother at the nearby commuter rail, said: “This is a place we drive by every day. It’s super creepy. What if one of your family members was there?”